notes from the long run

New Years Resolutions

2012 is due to be a good year I think, for many of us. And in planning for the marathon, I have made a list of some of the sporting things I would like to achieve over the year

2012 km in 2012 (thats 1250.2 miles)

21 minute 5km

45 minute 10km

2:00 hour Half Marathon

4:30 Marathon

plankaday

2012 km in 2012

come on, you're only halfway! :-)
I know a few people who are undertaking 2012 miles in 2012, and I was tempted, but I have to be realistic too. I have seen a few people this year really pushing themselves over the Christmas period to break the 1000 mile target they set themselves, when I consider that I have run approximately 540 miles this year, the prospect of quadrupling that effort terrifies me. To slightly more than double it seems a far more realistic goal, and one I am pretty excited about undertaking

sub 21 minute 5km

Mo Farah wins 5000m Gold at Daegu
So far my Parkrun PB has fallen by a little over 2 minutes from 26:17 to 24:09, but I know this progress will slow considerably, I am not sure I’ll ever be in a position to break 20 minutes for such a distance, but I have set my target for the year as 21 minutes. I may need to find a flatter parkrun route though :-)

45 minute 10km

Haile Gebreselassie Wins the Great Manchester Run
For some time I have wished for a 45 minute 10km time, and having achieved 52 minutes in November this year, I am closer than ever, but I think this is a challenge to be focused on after the marathon training period.

2:00 hour Half Marathon

Run, Run, Run.....
Having never raced a Half Marathon officially, whatever time I set at Silverstone will be a PB, but following training runs last year of about 2:20 for the distance I would like to think that sub 2 hours is achievable?!?!

4:30 Marathon

Emmanuel Mutai wins the Virgin London Marathon
A solid base of training following my ingenious training plan leaves me aiming for the 4:45 marathon that I had hoped for last year, but based on a current successful period of training I reckon I will aim for a 4:30 – leading to a whopping 1:10:00 PB!

plankaday

I have read on twitter a little recently about the plankaday challenge, and it was always a little intriguing, but having been spurred on by LardyBoy I am going to join in the plankaday challenge 2012. The aim being to complete a plank every single day that lasts a minimum of 1 minute. Should go some way to improving some core fitness and shifting some lingering pounds.

Shift some pounds

Fruit 'n Veg
Speaking of which, I intend to focus my food and nutrition a little more, and hope to shift some weight. Maybe even finally get under 12st for the first time in many years. I would be especially happy if I can drop about 5kg over the year, bringing me to about 72kg.

I think they’ll be a challenge, but I guess that’s the point :-) just tried a plank this evening, i literally just made it to 1 minute, so it’ll be a bit of a struggle to start with.

So far all my runs have been at Banstead, its really nice there but not exactly a PB course. Thinking of traveling about a bit, there are quite a few pretty local to me. It’s just that banstead is the closest!

My A goal for miles is 2012 this year but I also have a B goal of 1800. I think your distance goal is totally doable and the best way, I think, is to break it up into how many km or miles that translates to per week and go from there.

Thanks Michelle, Good luck with your mileage goal, you came so close in 2011!! I think I am counting a lot on the build up to my marathon to build a lot of my target miles early on, I’m not sure how I’d do without race targets to help get the mileage in. But with nothing set in stone for the rest of the year past easter I guess I’ll just have to wait and see :-)

I’ve already split it up, I know its 104 miles per month, or 24.04 per week, or 3.43 miles per day. Which to me, makes it all the more doable.